Shaheen: We must ‘eliminate’ Syria’s chemical weapons

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) called on the international community to ensure Syrian President Bashar Assad hands over his entire chemical weapons stockpile.

“More work remains to be done to dismantle Assad’s chemical weapons program, and the administration and the international community must increase pressure on Syria to ensure the regime complies fully with its international obligations,” Shaheen said Wednesday.

{mosads}Her comments came after reports that Assad has failed to disclose production and warehouse facilities for chemical weapons. 

“Syria’s failure to declare all of its chemical weapons facilities is simply unacceptable, and the international community must redouble its efforts to completely account for and eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons capability,” Shaheen said.

Syria agreed to overturn its chemical weapons due to international pressure, after Assad used them against rebel protesters in his country. Shaheen said the United States must remain “vigilant” and “destroy” Assad’s capacity to produce anymore weapons.

“While all of Syria’s declared chemical weapons have been removed from the country, we must remain vigilant to fully verify that all of the Syrian regime’s weapons and its capacity to produce more are destroyed,” said Shaheen, who is facing a tough reelection fight in the midterm elections.

The United States is now arming and training some moderate Syrian rebels to aid in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The training could also later help the rebels topple the Assad regime, which has so far easily fought off the uprising.